Insider Selling: Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) CEO Sells 206,000 Shares of Stock

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total value of $19,967,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,981,414,831.47. This trade represents a 0.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ken Xie also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, January 15th, Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08.
• On Tuesday, December 17th, Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88.

Fortinet Trading Up 2.3 %

FTNT traded up $2.24 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $98.28. 6,310,715 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,826,094. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.57 billion, a PE ratio of 43.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $102.15 and its 200 day moving average is $91.36. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. HSBC upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $83.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.72.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $389,867,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $617,115,000 after acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products.